KENTFIELD — The Branson School girls volleyball team held off St. Joseph Notre Dame in the North Coast Section Division V final Saturday, earning 25-15, 25-22, 21-25, 25-17 victory over the Pilots at College of Marin.

Despite her team claiming its fifth consecutive NCS title, Branson coach Michelle Brazil said the Bulls could take a few notes before the postseason moves forward.

“I think we had better learn something; we made a lot of errors, and you usually lose when you make a lot of errors,” Brazil said. “Game 1 was good, but we didn’t get any better. We did enough to win, but we didn’t play our best.”

Both teams will advance to the state portion of the postseason.

Throughout Saturday’s contest, the Bulls (32-6) put together little runs when most needed.

Branson forced a St. Joseph timeout early in the first set after taking a 7-3 lead. The Pilots (30-9) came out of the break and went on a 6-2 run to go ahead, but the Bulls quickly regrouped to the tune of a 9-2 run on the way to the first set win.

The Pilots carried the early set two momentum after building a 4-0 lead, and were still up 13-9 when the Bulls charged back. Branson snatched the lead at 17-16, and didn’t look back.

The Pilots won the third set after taking an early 6-2 lead, an advantage that Branson was this time unable to turn around.

“We had a plan, and it worked in Game 3. It almost worked in Game 2, but it didn’t,” Pilots coach Eddie Chen said. “That game will be a building block for us going forward (in the postseason).”

Branson refused to let the Pilots’ hope for a match upset build, taking an early 7-3 lead in the fourth set and then putting together a 4-1 spurt midway through to build a 20-14 advantage. Branson this time put away the Pilots for good.

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